The present invention relates to fabrics, more particularly fabrics comprising a liner having a polymeric coating on at least a portion thereof and garments especially gloves, made from such fabrics. The invention also relates to methods for forming a polymeric coating on a liner.
Gloves with enhanced gripping characteristics are desirable in many fields of industry. In particular, synthetic or natural latex rubber gloves have been manufactured by various routes. For example U.S. Pat. No. 7,814,570 discloses synthetic or natural latex gloves without liners which have a roughened surface obtained by using a tacky, polymeric coagulant with the coagulant particles forming impressions on the latex glove surface.
Similar techniques are disclosed in US-A-2007/0192929 relating, again, to latexes of natural or synthetic rubber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,072 relates to coated gloves with a rubber or resin (such as vinyl resin) coating which ensures adequate ventilation. This is achieved in this patent by coating a liner of the glove with a foaming resin solution and subsequently applying low pressure to the coating in order to burst the small bubbles on the surface.
One further method of improving the grip of polymeric coatings on gloves is applicable when the polymeric coating is formed from natural rubber. In these gloves, a natural rubber wet gelled coating is subjected to treatment with an organic solvent such as paraffin. The result of this treatment is a crinkle surface on the rubber coating which enhances grip. Natural rubber has poor solvent resistance and consequently solvent is readily absorbed. Other, synthetic polymers have greater solvent resistance (for example nitrile rubber, carboxylated acrylonitrile butadiene). Nitrile rubber is rarely subjected to crinkle treatment since it absorbs organic solvents poorly and so the crinkle finish is difficult to achieve and the crinkles are poorly defined (even with such aggressive solvents as xylene or toluene). Other polymers such as neoprene (polychloroprene) are also solvent resistant. Crinkle surface gloves typically have many crinkles per linear cm across the surface.
Although many gloves are known to have reasonably good grip in dry conditions (and occasionally also in the presence of water) such gloves generally have poor or very poor grip in oily conditions. Oily conditions are commonly met with in an industrial environment and, for reasons of safety, convenience and comfort, it is important that a good oil grip is provided. It is also important in other uses of coated fabrics to increase the friction of the coated fabric in oily conditions.